Santa Maria, California: Mysterious Sphinx (Gone)
- Hours:
- Gone
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- Gone
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This is an update to the Mysterious Sphinx info request. Yes, this sphinx was an actual prop in Cecil B. Demille's Ten Commandments film. It stood at the entrance of the Santa Maria Country Club which still exists at Waller Lane just off of what is now Broadway.
Back in the 1920's, Broadway was still part of the original Highway 101. The sphinx remained through the 1920s, though I don't know how long after. The sphinx was made of plaster and therefore deteriorated rapidly. There are more artifacts from the film still buried in the Guadalupe Dunes about 10 miles west. Students have been using the site for archeology training.
[David Maxwell, 02/06/2009]Mysterious Sphinx - Vague Recollections
Unknown site. Would like info if you have ever seen or heard about where this roadside attraction could be found? We found photos in an old scrapbook kept in the family from a road trip in the early 1930's ('34-35?). We are trying to figure out where they existed...Thanks!
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Using our proprietary attraction interpolation software, we determined that this Sphinx once stood near the Santa Maria Country Club, Santa Maria, CA, west of US 101. The Sphinx, perhaps a temporary prop salvaged from a Hollywood Biblical epic (DeMille's 1923 Ten Commandments; more Sphinx's buried in the Nipomo Dunes north of Santa Barbara), is long gone. If the country club hasn't changed location in 70 years, this is the address: 505 West Waller Lane, Santa Maria.